Due to the close proximity of the World Trade Center and her medical training, Philip's family believes she perished trying to help victims of the following day's September 11 attacks.

The first by Ron Lieberman, Philip's husband, and private investigator Ken Gallant, a former FBI agent, initially presumed her disappearance and possible death were unrelated to the attacks but later concluded it was the most likely outcome.

An investigation by the New York City Police Department, begun much later, delved into her life leading up to September 11 and found details of marital problems, job difficulties, and alcohol abuse by Philip, as well as a pending misdemeanor charge against her, in the months before her disappearance.

Citing the evidence from the police report, a Surrogate's Court judge had denied her family's petition to have her declared a victim of the attacks, suggesting it was equally possible she may have intentionally disappeared or been murdered by someone she met on her frequent nights out.

[4] The couple were married in May 2000 at a small ceremony held in Dutchess County, combining Jewish and Saint Thomas Syrian Christian elements.

Lieberman gave his bride a minnu, a traditional Malayali Syrian Christian wedding pendant shaped like a gold teardrop with a diamond set in it.

At 4 p.m. she signed off and went to drop off some clothes at a neighborhood dry cleaners, then went to a Century 21 where she used the couple's American Express card to buy lingerie, a dress, pantyhose and bed linens.

[4] Lieberman called American Express and, upon learning about the credit card purchases on the previous evening, posted flyers in other Century 21 stores.

[4] Since police detectives initially seemed to be unhelpful to Lieberman and assumed that Philip had died with the other victims, he hired private investigator Ken Gallant, who found two pieces of evidence suggesting that she may have returned to the apartment building early on the morning of September 11.

Due to the poor contrast from the sunlight in the lobby, the woman was visible only in silhouette, but her hair and dress were consistent with Philip as seen in the Century 21 tape from the previous evening.

Gallant and Lieberman eventually concluded that Philip witnessed the attack and, as a physician, rushed to the site to render aid and subsequently perished there, either within the towers or in the ensuing collapse.

[4] Earlier in the year, Cabrini Medical Center had declined to renew Philip's contract, citing repeated tardiness and alcohol-related issues, effectively firing her.

Philip got another internship, in internal medicine, at St. Vincent's Medical Center on Staten Island, but was running into similar problems there—she had already been suspended for missing a meeting with a substance abuse counselor.

The police report says she and Lieberman fought loudly at the courthouse afterwards about her problems and nights out, which ended with her walking away and leaving him to go home alone and get ready for work.

They claim Philip was fired from Cabrini not because of alcoholism but because she had been a "whistleblower" who complained about racial and sexual bias (the hospital later told a reporter it had no evidence of any formal complaints by her).

Philip's drinking was a temporary phase to ease her through the depression she was experiencing after being fired by Cabrini, and would stop once her life got back to normal, as he believed it was doing.

Lieberman believed that his wife's profession would have led her to rush to the nearby World Trade Center, if she was in the vicinity, and offer aid to victims.

[7] Ellen Winner, appointed guardian ad litem for Philip, introduced the NYPD report and argued that there was no clear evidence she was at or near the World Trade Center during the attacks.

[9] Philip's family appealed, contrasting her case with that of Juan Lafuente, another possible victim whose petition the court's counterpart in Dutchess County, where he lived, had accepted.

He, too, had recently lost a job and struggled with depression, and as a volunteer fire marshal in Poughkeepsie might himself have had a reason to offer assistance at the World Trade Center.

His office was eight blocks north of the World Trade Center site, but the court accepted testimony from someone who frequented the same local deli claiming he had overheard Lafuente say he had a meeting at the Twin Towers that morning.

Philip's family believes Lafuente's petition, with similarly minimal evidence of the alleged decedent's presence at the site of the attacks, was accepted primarily because his wife, Colette, was mayor of Poughkeepsie at the time and the case was heard there rather than in Manhattan.

On January 31, 2008, a five-judge panel reversed Judge Roth's decision,[7] finding the simplest explanation to be the most likely – that Philip died trying to help people at the World Trade Center.

[8]Malone contrasted Philip's case to Lafuente's by noting that he had had a more predictable daily routine, a more stable life, and that there was independent evidence confirming the meeting at the World Trade Center he might have been on his way to.

Fernando Molinar, a Mexican immigrant,[12] has not been seen or heard from since September 8, 2001, when he told his mother on the telephone that he was starting a new job at a pizzeria near the World Trade Center.